Beijing, China - China has issued a preliminary ruling on an anti-dumping duty targeting nitrile rubber (NBR) imports from Japan and South Korea. This follows the country’s Ministry of Commerce having announced this duty on July 16. Under the new anti-dumping duty, Japan’s Zeon Corp. is required to pay a deposit of 30 percent on its NBR exports to China, with this figure at 18.1 percent for JSR Corp. A tariff of 56.4 percent will be levied on other Japanese manufacturers. The rate for South Korean producers, meanwhile, has been set at 37.3 percent with two exceptions: a rate of 12 percent for Kumho Petrochemical Co. Ltd. and 15 percent for LG Chem Ltd. Responding to the preliminary ruling, Zeon Director Hiroyuki Hirakawa accepted that the duty would have some impact on his company. However, Zeon could divert supply to the rest of Asia and the west, he said, even in a worst-case scenario involving the loss of all demand for the company’s NBR in China. Continuing from this, Hirakawa said he does not believe that commercial operations will entirely cease for the volume currently supplied to China. He also noted that the ruling was only at a preliminary stage, and that a certain level of Chinese demand will probably remain even if the duty is confirmed. Meanwhile, JSR Director Hideki Miyazaki said that as the ruling is still preliminary, his company is engaged in discussions aimed at securing a lower tariff in the final ruling.